Colonoscopy is a very common procedure. In the United States snore than 20 million such procedures are done every year. Colonoscopy is a relatively expansive procedure necessitating intravenous sedation to alleviate pain. The cause of pain may be due to several factors, including dilation and stretching of the colon during air insufflations from the colon's normal collapsed state resembling a collapsed tortuous hose, and including looping out and stretching fire nerve-laden colonic mesentery when a flexible colonoscope is pushed through multiple S-shaped curves in the colon. Some of these curves resemble, from the interior of the colon, a buckled-down hose. Recent studies show that if instead of air insufflations, water is used to open up the lumen, the colon gets stretched out but not as much as when the colon is opened with air, and the patient has mach less pain. Nonetheless, such use of water results in stretching of the colon and pain to the patient.
Additionally, traditional scopes used in colonoscopies have blunt edges which can damage or perforate the colon. These scopes also lend to cease transmitting a usable image when their distal ends come too close to the wall of the lumen.
Accordingly, there is a need for devices and methods useful for performing a colonoscopy that require minimal insufflation of the colon, so as to minimize stretching out of the colon and pain to the patient, while at the same time minimizing the chance of damaging or perforating the colon and maintaining a usable image transmission.